The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-11-09
INTERESTING "REMINISCENCES
Mississippi History Revived in a
Speech by Gen. Chalmers.
JUDGE EILErT, DELIVERED IN PRE-
sENTING THE REVOLUTIONS.

edited or more deeply moved than they
were on the morning of October 26, when
Gen. Chalmers presented to the criminal
court the resolutions of respect for the
memory of the late Judge Elicit, adopted
at recent meeting of the bar.
Gen. Chalmers said: If your honor
please, l rise in obedience to instructions
from bar meeting, held in this city on
the 22d day of October, 1887, to ask tn at
| the resolutions of the members of the bar,
together with those of the Cotton and
Merchants Exchanges and of the Jack
sonian Club, which were adopted at that
meeting as testimonials of our respect for
the late Judge Elicit, may be spread upon
the minutes of this honorable court.
Henry Thomas Elicit was born in
Salem, N. j., on the 8th day of March,
1872, and died in Memphis, Tenn, on the
18th day of October, 1887, as was well said
by Hon. C. w. HeiskelI in his eloquent
preamble to the bar resolutions, "in the
presence of the assembled thousands, who
had Just listened to his eminently appro-
pirate, eloquent and patriotic address of
welcome to the president of the United
States"
He graduated with distinction at Prince
ton College, and after having obtained
license to practice law moved to Mlssis-
sippi and became a citizen of that State.
The seeds of political discord between the
North and South had then been sown and
had begun to germlnate, but had not
ripened into that intolerant sectional
hatred which eventually fired the hearts of
Northern and Southern men against each
other-which came near producing seces-
sion in 1851, and which ten years later
eliminated into the greatest civil war OF
modern times. At the time WHEN Henry
T.. Elicit came to Mississippi, and for
many years after, yolng men CT education
from the North were welcomed as citizens,
and often highly honored with othctal
positions in the South.
There were three counties in South
ississippI-Adams, Jefferson and Clai-
borne-lging next to each other,
each fronting on the Mississippi
river, then the great highway of travel
and commerce, each then famous for its
production OF petit gulf cotton" and each
possessing climate where the air in
springtime was heavily laden with the
rich perfume OF the magnolia trees grow
ing spontaneously in the forests, and they
were at an early day settled with families
of wealth, education and refinement. Into
these three counties there came, within a
few wears of each other, four remarkable
Young I0en ITOu Tic ANOAilJ HhO "SAS
long and intimately associated with each
other at the bar: whose forensic contests
are still remembered as the battle of in
tellectual giants, and whose names will
be forever linked with the name and fame
of Mississippi in the days of its legal and
political purity-Prentiss and Quitman, OF
Adams, Clark, of Jefferson, and Elicit, OF
Claiborne. The first and most widely
known of these, Sergeant ). Prentlss, the
boon companion and matchless orator,
who made the name of Mississippi famous
by his speeches in Congress, as her repre-
sentative, was from Maine. The second,
John Anthony Quitman, the hero OF
Chapultepec and of the Belen Gate OF the
City of Mexico, who was distinguished as
a chancellor, governor and member OF
Congress from Mississippi, was from New
York. The third, Charles Clark, veteran
of the Mexican war, hero who tell
desperately wounded at the battle OF
Shiloh and again in the seige OF Fort
Hudson, who was the last war governor OF
Mississippi and afterward distinguished
chancellor of that State, was from Ohio.
The last and youngest, Henry L: Elicit,
the thoroughly equipped scholar, the accu-
rate lawyer, the faultless gentleman, the
true Christian and splendidly-balanced
gress, in her State Senate and in her high
court of errors and appeals, was from New
Jersey. 1t is no disparagement to Judge
Elicit to say that he was not the equal OF
Prentiss as an orator. But few men were,
if any man ever was, his equal. The great
orator of South Carolina, William Z.
Preston. who was called the inspired
decIaimer,n and who was certainly one OF
the great orators of the United States
Senate, was president of the South Caro-
lima College when / was a student there,
and in a lecture to my class on rhetoric he
said that Sergeant S. Prentlss was the
greatest orator that ever lived In ancient
or modern times-that he possessed the
polish of Cicero, the action OF Demosthe-
nese and the magnetic power OF fatrlck
Henry" Prentiss was grand and princely
in every thing that he did. His faults
were as great and glaring as his virtues,
but, like a volcano, his dazzling eruptlons
were self-consuming, and he passed away
in early manhood like fiery comet which
startles the earth for brief period with
it's brightness and then vanishes as 1t
came. He was worshipped by troops OF
devoted followers and admirers, but his
brilliant. seductive and cratic career proved
to be an ''ignis fatuis," Turing to his
destruction many bright young man who
attempted to follow it.
Henry T. Elicit, on the other hand,
| lived to ripe and virtuous age, shining
| like a fixed star, shedding its pure and
gentle light night after night and year
| after year, with unfading etfuigence and
UNIV avering steadiness, until he became
pole star in our armament, by whose rays
the feet of the rising generation may be
guided with unerring certainty In the
| pathway Of truth, virtue and greatness.
Quitman and Clark were born leaders of
| men who shone with distinction on the
battle field and in the fierce conflicts OF
| political strife, and it is no disparagement
to Judge Ellett-the man of peace-to say
that he was not their equal in these
respects.
| He did not possess any of the military
| ardor and dash of Gen. Quitman, nor that
indomitable energy and unyielding tenacity
which made Gov. Clark famous both in
civil and military life, but in clearness OF
perception, in calmness of judgment and
dispassion..te action, he was perhaps the
superior of either. The military ardor
and dash of Gen. Quitman involved him
to such an extent with those daring spirits
who, in 1850, contemplated the capture OF
Cuba, that he was arrested by the United
States government while he was governor
of Mississippi and tried in the United
States court at New Orleans for this
loffense. The unyielding spirit of Gov.
Clark made him refuse To allow the United
States flag TO be hoisted over the Lesisl
ture of Mississippi, assembled In the State
House at jackson, Immediately after our
surrender in 1865, and for this he was
arrested by the United States government
while governor of Mississippi and i'm
prisoned in Fort Pulaski. Judge Elicit
possessed too much OF that "calmness oi
SOUL" which was said to be the great dis
tinguishing feature Of William of Orange
ever to have become involved in any such
difficulties. But Prentiss, Quitman, Clark
and Elicit were all great men, and mer
who the sons of Mississippi will long
delight to remember and to honor. Like
sturdy oaks from the North, transplantec
in the South, they not only took root II
!. our genial soil, but gathered new strength
| from the change and continued to grow
until their wide-spreading branches added
. new beauty to the Southern landscape ane
cast refreshing shade over all that cam'
. within their reach.
In 1s46 Judge Elicit was elected to Con
. | gress from Mississippi to fill the unexpiret
term of Jefferson Davis, who had resignes
his seat to take command of the First Reg
imenf of Mississippi Volunteers in the wa
| with Mexico. and while there his spotles
purity of character and his exquisite neat
ness Of person won for him the title of 9Th
. gentleman of the House, and marked hiu
I through life as s4the gentleman in ever.
position to which he was called He wa
I | honored with denomination to Congress